The aim of this project was to construct a steel cupboard in order to help us acquire the knowledge of fabrication of a modern cupboard and the essence of it. Also to enable us (the students of chemical Engineering) to know how to construct as future engineers.

            The construction of steel cupboard was done using a square pipe of 1.5mm thickness and the mild steel having a thickness of 1.5mm. it was mark out cut, welded, filled and painted. The  cupboard has length and height of 1150mm and 1160mm and dept 400mm. A grade of 12 electrode was used for the welding process.

            The material used was locally sourced and selected to suit the desired purpose. Mild steel was used due to it’s cost and it’s corrosion free nature. No problem was encounter as regard the construction work. As a result of the quality of the material and it’s properties, a guarantee of ten years is given to the construction work. Advantage of steel cupboard as in preserving and securing of laboratory chemicals and equipment, keeping of document in offices out ways it’s disadvantage. The cost of production of the steel cupboard was fifteen thousand naira.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

            A Cupboard is a set of shelves with doors, either built into a room, offices or industries as a fixed or separate piece of furniture used for dishes, provisions, clothing, book shelves etc. the one in which clothes are hung is called hangers. These cupboard used in the libraries and offices for packing book are called book shelves. In the industries, material are stored in cupboard refer to as facility for storage.

            The material selection for the construction of any cupboard strongly depends on the properties and purpose the cupboard will serve. Generally, considering all the materials and non-metals have their individual merits. But point to comparison between them will definitely show that in general materials have a lot of advantages over metals.

            For example, while many type of metals are suitable for high temperature operation, non steel  such as wood and glass are suitable for lower and limited range of temperature. Metals posses a wider range of chemical stability than non-metals, so it can be said that the obvious advantage of first cost cheapness of non-metallic materials is counseled by other disadvantages of non-0metals, the most glarily of which is the that of narrow applicability. When considering the cost also, the first cost material is even not taken as sufficient indication or which to base the selection of construction materials. The following cost factors among others must be considered. Fabrication cost, installation costs, maintenance costs and cost of replacement. These cost must be considered in the material selection for construction.

            Cupboard derive it name and purpose sometimes from the material of construction and also  the shape it takes. Since cupboard built in homes of woods, usually used for hanging clothes, serve the purpose of protecting clothes for dust and other things and so on, they are called hangers. In the offices, books are arranged in a chronological order, files are also arranged inside cupboard for the necessary documents of the institution. Such cupboard are normally refers to as book shelves. This is usually made of metals. Cupboards used for domestic purposes such as keeping of dishes and provisions are usually of wood, and in this case, there is no observation of the operation involved in the construction of metal cupboard. This is because of the soft mnature in the curly off of the excess of the wood during construction. Instead the use of welding, nail is used in the arrangement of different part of cupboard. Another major different better those cupboard made of wood and those made of metal is that wooden cupboard cannot protect the inside in the presence of fire outbreak without getting burnt. But the metal cupboard can protect the things inside it in the presence of fire.

            There are several types of metals that can be used for construction. Metals for construction include: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Aluminum, Iron, and steel. There are usually about three types of steel as it constitute the widest use metal. These types include low carbon steel that has about 0.3% carbon, medium carbon steel, that about 0.3% - 0.7% carbon, and high carbon steel that contain 0.7% to 1.7% carbon.

            Steel are used in the construction of metal cupboard, because it is soft to cutting, bending and several operations applied to the metal during construction. The galvanized type of steel has a nature of stainless steel and so  does not support rust. Because of this, it is not painted after using it for construction. In the fabrication of sheet of metals, several types of guage are produced. They include Guage 23, guage 20, 18,16, 20, then guage 18, gauge 16, gauge 14 and gauge 12 and 10, 20 has the least thickness, will gauge 10 has the highest thickness. Gauge  18 and gauge 16 are the best type for construction of metal cupboards.